OTA

[fantasticnewt]

Newt sat on a bench in the park across from the building that housed the small flat that the Ministry had provided for him. He held his suitcase on his lap, still wary about having it out of his sight for even a moment. This was a step for him, being out in the world at all. Since he had arrived here a few weeks ago from 1927, everything was simply too much. Too much noise, too much crowd, too much that was unrecognizable, unexplainable...

Sometimes he'd felt as if the world was not all that welcoming to him at the best of times, and now he felt like even more of an outsider. He was an alien here. And not only this, but the shock of going to the Ministry for help and discovering that everyone knew who he was. There was a portrait of him there. A first edition of his book under glass.

He watched a squirrel scurry up a tree. Once safely on a branch, it paused and looked over at him. He offered a little wave.

The latch on his suitcase popped open.

"Quiet down, Dougal," he said gently as he closed the clasp again. "I am not letting you out, not here. If you thought New York was a different world, you've no idea what you might encounter in this place."

The latch popped open again, almost violently this time, and Newt practically flattened himself against the case to make sure it stayed closed, then glanced up and around him frantically, as if afraid he might be caught doing something bad.

[OOC: for the deets on brand new newt, here!">

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[fantasticnewt]

Startled, Newt looked up at her... and then his eyes immediately slid away from making contact with hers. "Yes, yes, I'm just fine," he said, and snapped the clasp on his case closed once more before relaxing his hold on it and straightening his body a touch.

[pippa_flynn]

"Are you...I'm sorry if this is rude, but do you mean to be here? You seem a bit...out of sorts," she said, a bit concerned about how out of place he seemed to be. Generally, anymore, she'd found people out of place ought not be here in the first place.

[fantasticnewt]

Did he mean to be here? No, he certainly did not, and it was such a preposterous question that he felt one side of his mouth curl up, a breath away from a hysterical laugh. However, he managed to suppress it.

"Here in the park?" he said instead, looking down at his hands on the case. "Well. I am... new, here. Far away from home."

[pippa_flynn]

"I could have guessed that," Pippa said, moving to sit next to him. "Your clothes are either terribly hipster or frighteningly antique."

[fantasticnewt]

After a beat, Newt fished a small leather-bound notebook out of his coat pocket. "Would you mind defining 'hipster' for me?" he asked politely.

[pippa_flynn]

Pippa laughed warmly and scooted closer.

"You could just ask Google, you know," she teased. "A hipster is a person who embraces the antique for ironic reasons. They think by-gone times hold romance, but they take it on with a modern sort of gentrified love that they think is sarcastic but it's really just a show of their privilege."

[fantasticnewt]

Newt was not entirely certain why she was moving closer, but to his credit he did not move away, tempted as he was.

The definition was only marginally helpful, but he scribbled it down anyway, and then glanced back up at her. "And who is Google?" he asked.

[pippa_flynn]

That got him a sharply arched eyebrow.

"Are you being serious right now?" she asked.

[fantasticnewt]

Newt realized that he had made a misstep. Revealing time travel to a Muggle had to be as severe as revealing the existence of magic.

Still, he wasn't entirely sure how to answer the question, so he settled on, "... no."

The case on his lap rattled a bit, and he clamped a hand down onto it.

[pippa_flynn]

Pippa looked at the case. Magic simply poured from it. She couldn't help herself...she laid a hand on it, too.

"You're not from here," she said. "Not from London proper. I can tell. Don't lie."

[fantasticnewt]

"Don't - don't touch that," Newt said, and swatted her hand away.

Then, without looking at her - "I'm sorry. But I really shouldn't answer these questions." He didn't want to have to obliviate her only for his own carelessness in speaking in front of a Muggle.

Though suddenly, as he regarded her, he wasn't entirely certain that she was a Muggle. Almost involuntarily, he sniffed the air around her.

[pippa_flynn]

She pulled her hand away and was about to say something, but then she realized what he was doing. A look of confusion laced with a bit of distaste crossed her face as she looked at him.

"I'm sorry...did you just smell me?" she asked. It wasn't so much that he'd done it. It was that she knew she smelled of vanilla and cinnamon and honeysuckle, and that wasn't her perfume. It was just her. Her magic.

[fantasticnewt]

Newt was certain he should have been embarrassed by this, but he was too intrigued at the moment to care. She looked human, but she was pinging "magical creature" for him on every other sense.

"I suppose it would be rude to ask what you are," he said, sounding polite while simultaneously practically vibrating with curiosity.

[pippa_flynn]

"Yes. That would be exceptionally rude," Pippa replied, but she was too amused to be offended. A bloke dressed like he was, who didn't know what Google was, and who reeked of magic couldn't possibly be from London proper. She shifted in her seat, twisting to face him.

"But since I'm pretty sure I've got you pegged as a wizard, it's only fair you ought to get the truth," she said. "Though it might just be a bit more fun to make you guess."

[fantasticnewt]

Newt's eyes went a little wide when she said wizard, but then he only looked pleased, gripping the case a bit harder and his expression turning into something like a smile (but a rather awkward version of one). "Oh good, you're not a muggle," he said. "I had an awful experience recently when I failed to obliviate one. Well, I suppose it turned out all right in the end, made a new friend, even, though, well, I suppose his memory is gone again..." His voice trailed off. He'd forgotten he was supposed to guess.

[pippa_flynn]

She let him talk on, but when he trailed off and paused for breath she looked at him curiously.

"Muggle?" she asked, then tilted her head. "No. I'm not that. Guess again."

[fantasticnewt]

Newt craned his head in an attempt to look behind her.

"Do you have wings?" he asked curiously. "I recognize that they may be hidden. Actually, perhaps I should ask if you are glamoured, full stop."

[pippa_flynn]

"Oh, you're clever," Pippa said. She was sure she might have wings, but she'd not set about working out if she did or not. She smiled brightly, all teeth, and leaned in closer.

"A bit of glamour," she said then. "Just enough to hide in plain sight. This is fun. Guess again!"

[fantasticnewt]

Newt was not particularly vain and did not require compliments, but he was glad for confirmation that he was on the right track. "There are few magical creatures who are both humanoid in appearance and have magic strong enough for a glamour," he said. "And we are nowhere near water, which rules out kelpies and merpeople. I suppose the most plausible answer is that you are a fairy." And he tried to hide it, but he was quite excited about this possibility, as he'd had precious little contact with them. Most of his information about the fey outside of pixies and doxies was based on legend and hearsay.

[pippa_flynn]

"So clever," she said warmly. Pippa offered her hand to shake.

I'm Pippa. I'm Queen of the Trooping fae . And now that you know, please don't make me turn you into a toad."

[fantasticnewt]

"You're... you're a fae queen?" Newt's eyes went wide, and for a moment he entirely forgot that an extended hand was an offer for a handshake.

[pippa_flynn]

"It's not something I just throw around," she laughed softly, reaching to cover his hand with hers since he didn't seem keen on shaking.

"Pippa," she said. "Call me Pippa."

Not her true name. Not the name her mother gave her. But it was who she was now, and a powerful enough name for her, at that.

"What's your name?" Pip asked then, very gently.

[fantasticnewt]

Newt did not pull his hand away, though with his other he unconsciously reached up and tried to straighten his hair a bit. He even took his hand off the case to do it.

"My name is Newt Scamander," he said. "And you are right. This is not my home." If she wasn't a Muggle, he might as well tell her the truth. "Well, London is. Except a week ago, it was 1927."

[pippa_flynn]

"And how, exactly, did you find yourself ninety years on, Mr. Samander?" Pip asked.

[fantasticnewt]

"A failed experiment into historical research by some modern wizards," Newt said with a little sigh. He supposed this was his reward for becoming successful. Apparently he was quite famous, thanks to his book. It was an odd notion.